Cardinals OC Harold Goodwin on O-line options: ‘I think D.J. at left, Jared at right’
Feb 2, 2017, 7:45 PM | Updated: Feb 3, 2017, 11:34 am
Cardinals second-year tackle D.J. Humphries at Arizona's practice on July 28, 2016. (Adam Green/Arizona Sports)
(Adam Green/Arizona Sports)
Arizona Cardinals offensive coordinator Harold Goodwin admitted he’s yet to talk it through.
But if his opinion is heard and goes unchanged, then the Cardinals will attack the offseason with soon-to-be third-year tackle D.J. Humphries as the team’s starting left tackle. The eyebrow-raising news there is that Arizona still has veteran left tackle Jared Veldheer coming off a season-ending triceps injury.
But in two-plus games as the Cardinals’ starting left tackle, Humphries impressed — enough for Goodwin to consider keeping the 23-year-old as the team’s starting left tackle.
“Just his smoothness. The punch, the feet, everything just looks natural,” Goodwin said Thursday on the Cardinals’ Big Red Rage show on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM. “And going into the offseason, it’s probably, I think we may just stick to and see what happens. Jared’s a team player, D.J.’s a team player.
“I’m sure we’ll sit down and have a little coach-to-player conversation, but you know, right now, just throwing it out there a little on my own accord: I think D.J. at left, Jared at right, and we’re rolling and kicking butt.”
Goodwin said Humphries’ maturity after being drafted 24th overall and then sitting out his entire rookie season has developed. Indeed, so has his playing ability. It was enough to earn the starting right tackle job to kick off the 2016 season.
How Humphries finished the year despite missing the final three games while on concussion protocol sealed the deal.
He has officially emerged.
“It means we have a potential franchise left tackle,” Goodwin said Thursday, before telling the story of moving Humphries from right to left. “I called D.J. in my office and I said, ‘D.J. what do you think left tackle?’ And it was like Christmas. He lit up. I can’t tell you what he said, but he was basically like, ‘Are you screwing me?'”
So what’d he think?
“He goes, ‘In a heartbeat,'” Goodwin said.
NO SUPER TALK
Fans might have guessed the Cardinals’ being featured on Amazon’s “All Or Nothing” series could have gotten into the players’ heads.
Whether it was that or simply from the success a year prior, Goodwin might agree.
Arizona’s offensive coordinator admitted the team didn’t reach expectations in 2016, and he knows what type of language won’t be taken well in the locker room heading into next season.
“I think we should leave the Super Bowl out of our thought process. I just think we got to take one day at a time,” he said. “You got to come to work every day. We have to perfect our craft on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday so it comes easy on Sunday. The good thing about us, we’re going to bounce back. We ate a lot of humble pie this offseason and deservedly so.”
